Library · Physiology
Electrolyte balance
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Electrolytes are dissolved salts, such as sodium and potassium, that carry an electrical charge. They handle jobs that are basic to life. One is maintaining the electrical neutrality of the cell, meaning that the positive and negative charges inside it come out even. The other is generating and conducting action potentials, the electrical impulses that nerves and muscles run on.
Two of them split the territory. Sodium is a cation of the extracellular fluid, that is, a positively charged particle in the fluid that bathes cells on the outside, and it is osmotically active: it pulls water along with it, like salt sprinkled on an eggplant to draw the water out. Potassium, by contrast, lives mostly inside the cell. The kidney is what regulates both.
When that division breaks down, normal functions are disrupted. The clearest case is potassium: disturbances in it can cause cardiac arrhythmias, that is, changes in the rhythm of the heart.
In brief
Electrolytes are essential for basic functions such as maintaining the electrical neutrality of the cell and generating and conducting action potentials in nerves and muscles.
Sodium is an osmotically active cation of the extracellular fluid and potassium is mostly intracellular; the kidney regulates both.
When that balance breaks down, normal functions are disrupted; potassium disturbances, for example, can cause cardiac arrhythmias.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingElectrolytes, StatPearlsPublished
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